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A Gift From the Father: Community
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Bonners Ferry Seventh-day Adventist Church, ID, USA
Delivery: 2011-02-19
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2011-02-20 00:40Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kirl-agftf-community.php
It is dark. Jesus is alone, so supremely alone. He is praying in Gethsemene. In a few hours, He will be crucified, dying, a sacrifice to make atonement for our sins. But in the moment we view this snapshot, He is experiencing something unnatural for humans and unnatural for God. He is experiencing a total lack of community. He feels entirely alone.
Today, we are gathered to remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us until His return. He made us in His image, and this making contains many gifts. One of these gifts from the Father, received through what Jesus is doing for us, is the gift of community.
What is community? A unity together with persons. But we are all so different; we come from so many different backgrounds, experiences, attitudes. Can there be any true unity, or is that just some unachievable, fuzzy ideal? And what about the basis for togetherness? What is it?
We are made in God’s image. Everything that was made in the world was made by Jesus (John 1:2). You are here because Jesus made you. And, because God Himself was the pattern, we are like God, infinitely lesser than Him, nor precisely like Him, to be sure, but like Him.
What is He like?
He is a Being of community.
Seventh-day Adventists believe, not because of a tradition but because the Bible teaches it, that there is one God—exactly one. That one God is a Being composed of three distinct persons. God is one yet many; He is one and yet three. Not three Gods; one God manifest in three distinct persons. God is a Being of community.
We commonly (and rightly) think of God as expressing love selflessly. And this makes sense. For if it is true that God is love (1 John 4:8), then love is God at His core; then it is the most primary aspect of God. But how can His be a selfless love unless there be other persons to love? And so, for this statement to be true (that "God is love"), and if it be true that He loves selflessly, and if there was a time before He created anything and when He was all that was, then for Him to be selfless love and to be perfect and unchanging in His character, He must always have existed in community. So, in the beginning, they were there: one God, manifest in the three persons we call the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
God is love. God could not be love from all eternity were He not a Being of community. Love requires an object; there must be one or more other persons to love.
We do not, like God, exist as trinities; but we are like Him in being oriented as beings of community. We are not God; we are not love in its essence. We lack that. We do not have existence in ourselves. We are dependent creatures. This aspect of ourselves—that we are designed for community—cannot be fulfilled in ourselves. God designed this world so that we would need Him and need each other.
When God made Adam He also made Eve. When Jesus came He gathered believers to be with Him. When Jesus ascended to the Father, the New Testament Church came into being to act in His behalf. And now, when the end of ages is come upon this planet, God has raised up a remnant, a gathering of nondescript, unlikely followers—charged to live and proclaim Jesus and His community.
Certainly, neither you nor I are something special in ourselves apart from God. Like Israel thousands of years ago, we are the least of all peoples. But in our weakness God’s power will be shown. In our need the goodness of God will be demonstrated. There will be an assembly of believers in Christ, against whom the gates of hell, the permanence of death and the grave, will not stand. Because Jesus lives we also will live (John 14:19).
The garden of Gethsemene was a place of aloneness that night. Jesus was there; His disciples were there. But they did not strengthen Him. They slept; their Redeemer did not. Because He went to the cross, we remember His death until He come. This is a special day for us. We have community. We are not separate; we need each other. We are family with each other and with Jesus. Our Father has a place in His house for us. We are given the gift of community, but this comes through the cross. So very expensive! So very special. Too often, neglected. Today, we thank our Lord Jesus and we remember. This is part of what Sabbath is about too—the gift of community.
May His Spirit come down and bring help, peace, and joy to our hearts as we rejoice in what Jesus has done and is doing for His little children. GCO
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